BHUBANESWAR: Defending Champion Odisha Juggernauts will cross swords with East Bengal in the final match of the Kalinga Super Cup here at Kalinga Stadium on January 28. In the second semifinal on Thursday, Odisha Juggernauts edged out Mumbai City FC 1-0. The all-important goal was scored by Diego Mauricio.
Odisha faced a strong challenge from Mumbai City FC. As both teams entered the knockout rounds with a perfect record winning three league matches of the super cup. While star striker Diego ran with the ball, Mumbai FC goalkeeper Phurba pulled him down, which resulted in a penalty kick for the home team.
Diego took the spot kick to break the deadlock in the 42nd minute and the first-half ended with 1-0 lead for the defending champions.
The rejuvenated Mumbai FC dominated the initial minutes of the second half, which helped to continuously exploit spaces from both flanks. But they were not able to capitalise on the opportunities.
Few minutes before the final whistle, both the teams changed their gear to overpower each other. Nine minutes added to the second half, during that period Mumbai City were down to eight players as three of players — Rostyn Griffiths, Pereyra Diaz were shown red cards and Gurkeerat Singh got his second yellow card — were sent off.